


Brother and Sister

by NewtGirl



Category: Tomie - All Media Types
Genre: And I'm really sorry about that, Multi, Siblings Without Incest, Tomie's a Bitch, mentions of child prostitution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-19 13:31:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17602283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NewtGirl/pseuds/NewtGirl
Summary: The siblings had only ever had each other. Their bond was unshakable, until they met Tomie Kawakami.





	Brother and Sister

**Author's Note:**

> So um. I've been reading a lot of Junji Ito stuff recently and I wanted to try my hand at writing something for it. I did what I could to emulate the style but it's rather hard in a text-only format. Hope it's alright.

Our lives were always hard.

I can’t remember a time when our parents weren’t arguing. Throwing things across the house, screaming in each other’s faces about some woman, leaving me and my little brother to fend for ourselves. In the rare times that they did notice us at all, they looked at us like…parasites. Like our existence was an ugly reminder of something they wanted to forget.

I don’t know what exactly forced my hand that night when we ran away. Maybe our father or mother raised a hand to us, maybe we’d gone one too many days without a proper meal. But late into the night, I packed up a small string-tied bag with what little clothes we had, and me and Izaki escaped out our bedroom window. I was only five years old, my brother three.

We were too scared to run to the police, any of the neighbors, or anyone else would might know us. There was a chance of us being returned right back to our parents, after all, and that was the worst possible outcome for us. Instead, we rode a bus out of town, paying our fare with the loose change I’d scavenged, and though the driver gave us both a skeptical look he took us to a smaller city nearby.

It wasn’t a happy place, either. The streets were cold, our clothes were tearing, and there was only so much food we could find in the dumpsters behind restaurants. Izaki’s frail constitution didn’t help, and when winter rolled around, I’d grown desperate to buy him a coat, a proper warm coat so that he wouldn’t have to whimper in his sleep anymore with his tiny freezing hands grasping mine.

That’s when I learned how I could make money. A…disgusting, humiliating, often painful method, but a method all the same. My age didn’t matter, it seemed; there was always someone willing to pay. Despair welled in me every time I found a ‘customer’, every time I was handed a wad of bills as my tiny legs threatened to buckle under me…but even though I sobbed to myself the entire walk home, I’d wipe my tears away and greet my baby brother with a smile. I was all he had…we only had each other. I had to be his strong big sister.

Eventually, we found a house, an abandoned one with creaking wooden walls and a leaky roof, but it was better than the streets, better than moldy cardboard boxes saturated with rain water. We found a school willing to take in two ‘underprivileged’ children like us. We had to catch up, neither of us able to read or write, but we did it. It was all we could do, to defy the fate that had left us like this.

Izaki was a very smart boy. He’d learned the alphabet faster than I had, drew kanji with grace, poured over books in the school library. He told me with a beaming smile that he wanted to be a surgeon, to make so much money that one day we could have a warm house with running water and even electricity. And I really believed that he could do it.

It was my third year of high school that everything we strived to build came crashing down on our heads.

Usually, we walked home together, Izaki telling me about the new facts he’d learned as I eagerly absorbed as much as I could while running over our pitiful ‘finances’, but today was different. He’d told me to go on ahead, that he had something he needed to take care of first. I didn’t see him again until dinnertime, after I’d waited for half an hour while staring at our quickly cooling soup.

Appearance-wise, I didn’t see anything off. His black hair flattened as much as makeshift combs would allow for, his dark eyes squinting and straining to see without the glasses we couldn’t afford. But normally, he was more energetic than this. More talkative. Instead, I was met with a wall of embarrassed silence, Izaki’s eyes glinting over at me every once in a while as he gulped down his food.

“Is something wrong?” I felt compelled to ask, knowing that he was probably waiting for me to bring it up. I never told him what I had to do for money, but…I did notice how he tried to never ask me for anything. If he needed my help, of course he’d be uncomfortable with saying so.

Izaki’s brow furrowed a bit, a tinge of pink on his pale cheeks. “U-Um…Sis, I…need some advice.”

That was a first, but I was eager to help. “Sure! Are you having girl trouble?” I added the tease at the end in hopes that it would calm him down a little, but it only seemed to embarrass him more.

“Um…well, kinda…” My eyes widened, but I gestured him to continue instead of squealing. “…Do you know Tomie? Tomie Kawakami.”

Something in me chilled. Tomie…like the name itself had thrown ice water onto the back of my neck. The thing is, I didn’t know why. I’d never met a girl named Tomie, so why… “I don’t think I do.”

“She’s…a girl in my class.” He’d taken to fidgeting with his fingers instead of looking at me. “She’s…really, really pretty…the most popular girl in my grade. You might’ve seen her around…the girl with the mole under her eye?” Now that he mentioned it, I might’ve seen a girl like that.

“Did you ask her out yet?” My question startled him, it seemed; his face went from pink to cherry red.

“N-No! A girl like her…I doubt she’d even give me the time of day…” Fidget, fidget. “…So I, um…wanted to ask you…what do I do? To get closer to her…”

“Hmm.” Having never met the girl, it was a hard question to answer. I know how I’d want a boy to approach me, but every girl was different. “…Hey, I have an idea. How about I talk to her for you?”

“W-What?” Izaki started, embarrassed fear overtaking him. “You-You’re just gonna walk right up to her and tell her about me?”

“No, no! I wouldn’t do that to you,” I laughed. “Just to…scope her out, you know? Find out what kind of thing she likes. The more you know about her, the better chance you have when you do go in for the kill, right?”

“I…I guess that’s true…” He still looked uneasy. “…I-If you’d do that, that’d be…nice…”

I grinned. “Don’t worry. Leave it all up to Big Sister!”

~0~

Finding Tomie Kawakami was surprisingly easy. Not just because I knew to look for the mole, but because she was flanked by three bulky second-years that stood out a mile.

It was lunchtime, the student body dispersed to various classrooms and clubrooms to eat with friends; I found Tomie in the garden, her ‘guards’ standing like sentries as she enjoyed her meal.

“Excuse me…are you Tomie Kawakami?” I knew it sounded rather unnatural, but it was the best I could do without giving away my intentions immediately. The second-years straightened up, glaring down at me with some silent threat in their eyes, but I tried not to look at them.

The girl looked up from her bento, those dark eyes coldly examining me, and in some back part of my mind I felt like she was mentally dissecting me and judging whatever she found. The frightening notion that she knew everything about me, everything I’d done, just at a glance. I was terrified, but I forced a smile to my lips anyway. This was for Izaki. “It’s nice to meet you! I’m Ayumi, a third-year. Sorry to bother you, but you looked a bit…lonely, eating alone back here.” It wasn’t a complete lie; her posse hadn’t spoken a word the entire time I’d been watching them, so even if Tomie wasn’t physically alone, the lack of socialization was still there. “Would it be alright if I sat with you?”

“Stop.” I hadn’t even noticed how the second-years were approaching me until Tomie said those words, a blunt command that froze their hands in the air before they could grab me. The girl continued to stare at me, considering me, and though I was mesmerized by her beauty I couldn’t help feeling terribly insecure in her gaze.

Then, she smiled, and a thick ball of dread dropped in my stomach. It was a beautiful smile, inhumanly beautiful; the smile of a child receiving a new toy, but with every trace of gratitude or innocence wiped away. I instantly knew that I was an object to her, something novel to keep her entertained until she grew tired of me. That one smile sparked an instinctual revulsion in me.

But I didn’t let my smile waver. This was for Izaki.

“Please do. I could use a change of pace.” Tomie slid over on the bench to make room for me, and thus began our farce of a friendship.

~0~

I never got used to Tomie’s presence. I never felt safe around her, I never felt comfortable. All I could ever feel when I was around her was the fear an ant must feel as it’s slowly being crushed under a child’s finger.

The ‘bodyguards’ were the first of many concerning elements. I never learned their names, nor did I ever hear them speak. Tomie didn’t even acknowledge them most of the time, and when she did it was only to gesture them to do something for her. Like they were butlers with no existence outside of her.

Secondly was Tomie’s personality. Her friendliness was only skin deep; she was the type of person to make pointed digs and backhanded compliments with an innocent smile on her face. “I assume your figure is because of your diet,” she’d comment as she looked at my waistline. We both knew it was an insult about my poverty, but I stubbornly refused to look offended. She was pushing me on purpose, I realized; seeing how far she could cross the line before I turned on her.

I didn’t even know how to begin breaking to my brother that Tomie was not the angel he thought she was. Part of me didn’t know if I could. Instead, I’d report to him nightly about whatever I’d learned, her favorite foods, her preference in studies, her type of men. Avoiding the negatives…avoiding the warning signs. I knew deep down that I wasn’t doing the right thing, that I should be honest with him, but I…I couldn’t break his heart. I didn’t have it in me.

Maybe it was my fault that things went wrong. Maybe if I’d just been a better sister…Izaki wouldn’t have changed like he did.

~0~

The first time I noticed my brother skipping dinner, I’d thought he was sick. He usually kept that sort of thing to himself, not wanting to worry me, but I made the usual soup anyway and let myself into his room.

Stacks of paper surrounded his desk space like castle walls, paper that he must’ve swiped from school along with the pen hovering over a single sheet in front of him. “Izaki?” He didn’t move, didn’t acknowledge me. When I looked over his shoulder, I realized the page he was staring so intently at was completely blank. “…Are you feeling alright?”

“…I’m fine.” But he still didn’t look up at me. My brow furrowed, but I decided it was pointless to pressure him about it and set the bowl down next to him.

I only faintly heard a ‘thank you’ as I left.

~0~

He spent several days cooped up in his room. Over a week spent bringing him his dinner, eating my portion without him in the silent living area. I couldn’t do anything but stare at his empty space, spooning down a broth I knew wouldn’t fill the hole in my heart.

I trudged into his room again today, kicking aside balled-up paper he’d scattered on the floor. “You shouldn’t waste paper like this” came out automatically, but I knew he wouldn’t care what I said.

My weight dropped on one of the scraps, paper flattening under my foot, and though I only caught a glance of the drawing at first I quickly did a double-take. It was…Tomie. Her face, anyway. Most of the features were sketched in, but for some reason Izaki had drawn an X across the paper and threw it away. I couldn’t see any mistakes, so why…?

When I put his bowl on the desk, he didn’t say a word.

~0~

“Izaki, what is _that_?” I’d just been trying to bring him his dinner again. Get him to talk to me, maybe convince him to clean up a little. But that entire game plan changed when I saw the picture he’d hung from a loose nail above his desk. 

A dissection chart. A whole human body, torso and abdomen skinned, organs meticulously drawn and labeled. Tomie’s face adorned the cadaver, smiling back at me.

He didn’t answer me, as usual; I uttered his name again in a slight panic as I approached. The soup sloshed in the bowl between my hands. “I know you can hear me, so act like it! What _is_ that?”

“Go away.” It was the first time I’d heard him speak in weeks, and he didn’t even raise his head. He was too focused on another anatomy sketch, muscular structures. Again, it had Tomie’s face.

“This is going way too far, Izaki.” I was desperately trying to remove the tremor from my voice. “I’m your sister, and I love you, but I can’t support everything you do. I’ve supported your studies, I’ve even supported your crush, but this…” I could only gesture at the drawing on the wall, even though his back was turned to me still. “This is wrong! Are these, _plans_ or something? Is this what you want from her?”

“I said go away,” he warned me again, but my momentum kept me going.

“Izaki, listen to me. We both know this isn’t healthy. So let’s, let’s go back to how we were, okay? Come back to the living room with me, I made soup-“

“I don’t want any of your goddamn soup!” I could barely process it when he spun around in his chair, the back of his hand colliding with mine and knocking the bowl I carried to the ground. I was stunned, disbelieving, frozen as I watched the broth absorb into the wooden floorboards.

My last client had been horrible. Balding, ugly, with a rancid odor. But I’d put up with it, clutched the bills tightly, reassured myself that any pain was worth it if it meant my brother would be fed. And now, I was watching the only reward for my suffering going to waste.

Izaki didn’t even look at me as I ran out of the room. Not once did he come check on me as I spent the night crying myself to sleep.

As much as I tried to be a paragon of selflessness, I knew it wasn’t the truth. I pretended to expect no recompense for my sacrifices, pretended to be the ideal big sister, but such pretensions were shattered that night. My reward had been Izaki’s gratitude, seeing his smiling face. Through his dependence on me, I’d validated my existence. But that dependence existed no longer; he didn’t need me anymore.

All he needed was Tomie Kawakami.

Spite boiled at the back of my throat. Certainly, Tomie held blame for this. Tomie, that cruel and manipulative snake who thought her looks made her better than everyone else. Izaki as well; he’d grown into an ungrateful brat, willing to discard his sister for some floozy he’d never even spoken to.

But it was my fault as well. Me, who’d seen the red flags but did nothing to stop it. Me, who’d enabled and even encouraged Izaki on his way down this path. I had to shoulder some responsibility as well. Yes, I’d take responsibility and fix this situation.

I’d invite Tomie Kawakami over. Let her have dinner with us, let my brother see for himself what kind of person she really was. One way or another, I was going to make him see the truth.

~0~

I’d intentionally forgotten to mention our dinner guest to Izaki beforehand. He’d had no idea that Tomie was coming until he heard her voice, speaking to me in the entranceway. As I showed her to the living room, I spotted Izaki’s head peeking out of his room, like a rat judging if it was safe to exit its den.

“You have a brother?” Tomie questioned, her eyes locking on Izaki’s face. I could see him freeze from across the room, too mesmerized to even shy away.

“I didn’t mention him before?” My voice was laced with a false sweetness, necessary when I spoke to her. I felt I’d gag on my own tongue if I didn’t use such a tone. “That’s Izaki. Sorry, he’s a little shy around new people.” I leaned around and motioned for him to join us, but my gaze was hard; I was not letting him avoid this.

Tomie didn’t greet him when Izaki finally managed to approach us, sitting down next to me with his hands trembling violently in his lap. His eyes kept darting around, landing on Tomie for only a second before moving away again; she was a sun whose burn he wanted to endure.

“I’m sorry, we only have soup…” I’d set the bowls down and began the meal, but I was quick to notice that I was the only one eating. Izaki was too nervous to even pick up his spoon, but Tomie’s reason for abstaining was harder to identify. Her hands remained folded in her lap, and her scorching stare never left my face. She was thinking over something, but what it was I couldn’t tell. The silence was suffocating.

“…Ayumi, why did you bring this mongrel to join us?” I nearly choked on my soup. Of all the things I’d expected her to say, from insulting the meager meal to remarking on the state of our house, that was the last thing on the list.

“Wh-What?” My head raised, meeting Tomie’s gaze. She hadn’t moved an inch, posture perfect as she gave me that same, fake smile. “Mongrel…?”

“Yes, that filthy thing next to you.” She didn’t even pay Izaki a glance; I couldn’t either, too stunned to think of doing so, but I could feel him go completely still. “I wanted to spend some time alone with you. I even left my other ‘friends’ behind so that we could be together.” Tomie tilted her head. “If you’re serious about us, then you’ll get rid of it.”

I had no idea what to think. She’d never said _anything_ like this before, never even implied it. And her word choice…why would she say things that made us sound like a couple? Floundering for an explanation, my head jerked towards Izaki.

He was already staring back at me. His darkened and empty eyes, the slight snarl of his lips…my veins grew colder and colder as I processed the look of absolute hatred on my brother’s face. “I-Izaki, I-“

“You _bitch_!” I remembered the tiny hands that had grasped mine all those years ago, freezing and trembling but holding onto me for dear life. Those same hands looped around my neck, shoved me to the floor, and began to crush my throat.

I immediately started to struggle, trying to loosen his grip, flailing my legs in a vain attempt to throw him off. My head turned to look at Tomie, but she still hadn’t moved. All she did was smile.

“You told me you’d help me! You said you were on my side!” He lifted my head up and banged it against the floor; my vision spun. “But you just wanted her for yourself, didn’t you?” He was crying, I realized, a tear hitting my cheek. “I won’t forgive you! I won’t let you get in the way!”

“Iza…ki…” Something in me knew that this was the end. My conscious was drifting, the void flickering at the corner of my eye. My brother’s face was soon consumed by that darkness.

In those last seconds, I finally remembered where I’d heard the name Tomie before. That’s right, Tomie…the name our parents would scream and fight over…

~0~

It took a while for my sister’s body to stop its death spasms. Sporadic jerks of limbs as it processed the death of the brain, completed its shutdown. I did nothing but watch.

Her face was horrible. Blue with shock, teeth grit with pain, eyes rolled entirely back in her head; she’d clearly suffered. But I didn’t feel a thing. Or rather, I felt so much that it all became white noise, and I ceased distinguishing one emotion from another.

My head turns towards Tomie. Beautiful Tomie, my beautiful Tomie that I loved and hated in equal degrees. I wanted to cut open her stomach, preserve each and every organ, know her down to the smallest detail. I wanted to hear her scream in pain as I dissected her.

My beautiful, perfect Tomie…was staring back at me, her gorgeous eyes tainted with unbridled disgust. “Filthy, worthless mongrel! Look what you’ve done!” Her words should’ve hurt, but I was still numb. “You’ve broken my favorite toy. What am I supposed to do now, huh?” She was standing up, turning her back to me. She was leaving me. “How I hate selfish, snot-nosed brats like you!”

The scalpel I’d hidden up my sleeve, the scalpel I’d stolen from the school labs and had retrieved when I realized Tomie was here…I slid it into my hand, considered the cold metal. I wasn’t going to let her leave me so easily.

~0~

Her screams really were beautiful.

However, I may have gotten too carried away. Her struggles turned my attempted dissection into a violent stabbing, and I ended up slicing many of her precious organs to pieces. The chunky, pulpy mess left behind…It was as ugly as her soul was, I realized.

Tomie wasn’t as perfect as I’d hoped. But if she wasn’t the perfect woman this way…why not make one?

I returned to Ayumi’s cooling body. Her greatest sin, I thought, was not ugliness. It was that she was so unremarkably plain, so generic that she was somehow more revolting for it. The only reason she could sell her body as she did was the ridiculous demand for a very limited supply.

But her insides were acceptable. At least, better than the diced remains of Tomie Kawakami.

Round and round, scalpel dug under five layers of skin, peeling it off the muscle like the rind of an orange. My hands were steady, my technique precise, and soon Ayumi was free of that disgustingly plain exterior.

It was harder to remove Tomie’s. Flayed as she was, it came off in pieces, and I realized quickly that I had to stitch it onto Ayumi’s flesh as soon as I secured a section. At least my sister had kept a sewing needle around, though I had to rip the thread from an old blanket when I ran out of the regular spools.

When I finished my work, I expected a surge of euphoria. But nothing came. I felt nothing but that hollow numbness as I stared down at my ‘perfect woman’, quilted together with Tomie’s transplanted eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. What was missing? She had the perfect outside and inside, so what else could she need?

~0~

I never did arrive at an answer.

My creation was not dead. It was very much alive, and growing at a startling pace. The seams in her flesh were tearing one by one, every piece spreading and bulging against its neighbors, eyes and fingers and hair spouting at random. I heard the sound when one of the eyes grew too large, and Ayumi’s skull cracked like an eggshell.

I’d wanted to create a better Tomie. One with a beautiful heart to match her beautiful face. But when one of those newborn eyes landed on me, I knew right away that I’d failed.

**Author's Note:**

> Ahaha, haha...man, I need a better hobby.


End file.
